1. Field
The present invention relates, generally, to a reciprocating compressor and, more particularly, to a suction/discharge assembly of a reciprocating compressor.
2. Background
A reciprocating compressor is an apparatus that compresses a fluid by suctioning, compressing, and discharging a refrigerant by a reciprocating motion of a piston inside a cylinder. The reciprocating compressor may be classified as a connected type reciprocating compressor or a vibrating type reciprocating compressor in accordance with a method of driving a piston. Here, the connected type reciprocating compressor compresses a refrigerant by a reciprocating motion inside a cylinder of a piston connected to a rotary shaft of a driving unit through a connecting rod, and the vibrating type reciprocating compressor compresses a refrigerant by a reciprocating motion inside a cylinder of a piston which vibrates by being connected to a mover of a reciprocating motor.
The connected type reciprocating compressor is disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-2010-0085760. The connected type reciprocating compressor disclosed in the unexamined patent application includes a housing shell forming a closed space, a driving unit disposed inside the housing shell to provide a driving force, a compression unit connected to a rotary shaft of a driving unit and using the driving force from the driving unit to compress a refrigerant by a reciprocating motion of a piston inside a cylinder, and a suction/discharge unit introducing a refrigerant into the compression unit and discharging a refrigerant compressed by the compression unit.
A suction/discharge part introducing a refrigerant into the cylinder or having a refrigerant compressed in the cylinder introduced thereinto is disposed at the suction/discharge unit. In addition, a valve assembly for guiding suction or discharge of a refrigerant is included between the suction/discharge part and the cylinder.
The valve assembly includes a suction valve and a discharge valve. In a process in which a refrigerant is suctioned and discharged, the suction valve may operate to be open toward the rear with respect to a flowing direction of a refrigerant, and the discharge valve may operate to be open toward the front with respect to the flowing direction of the refrigerant. Consequently, malfunctioning of a valve due to an erroneous direction of assembling the valve assembly may be a problem.
However, a device that guides a direction of assembling a valve assembly is not included in a conventional compressor, and therefore the valve assembly cannot perform its original function when the valve assembly is assembled with front and rear directions thereof reversed.
Meanwhile, a gasket for preventing leakage of a refrigerant is disposed between the valve assembly and the suction/discharge part. The gasket maintains airtightness between the valve assembly and a muffler assembly.
Generally, since a refrigerant inlet and a refrigerant outlet formed at the suction/discharge part have different sizes or shapes from each other, the gasket also has flow holes of different shapes to correspond to the size or shape of the refrigerant inlet and the refrigerant outlet. Consequently, when the gasket is erroneously assembled, problems such as leakage of a refrigerant may occur since the airtightness between the muffler assembly and the cylinder is not maintained.
In addition, the suction/discharge part has to come in close contact with the cylinder and be mounted. However, when a plurality of fastening members are used to couple the suction/discharge part to the cylinder, a structure of a compressor becomes complex and assembling the compressor becomes difficult.